France: Macron appoints defense minister Sébastien Lecornu as prime minister

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday named defense minister Sébastien Lecornu as the new prime minister to replace François Bayrou, who spent just nine months in office, the presidency said.

Macron asked Lecornu to "consult the political forces represented in Parliament in order to adopt a budget for the nation and reach the essential agreements for the decisions of the coming months," the Elysee said in a statement.

Lecornu has been defense minister for more than three years, marked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and is considered a loyal and discreet ally of President Emmanuel Macron.

The 39-year-old politician has been one of the few faces of continuity in the French government since Macron's election in 2017, despite multiple government changes caused by the. current political instability.

Bayrou's executive falls

Bayrou presented his resignation to Macron this Tuesday, who accepted it and charged him with managing the current affairs until the appointment of his successor, according to a government statement.

On Monday, the French parliament tumbled the government of François Bayrou, the second in nine months, days before protests spurred on social networks under the slogan Let's block everything.

By a resounding vote of 364 to 194, lawmakers backed the motion to oust Bayrou, marking a milestone in the country's political instability.

The French president had promised to quickly appoint a new prime minister, a difficult task in view of the political fragmentation in the National Assembly, without stable majorities since 2024.

In June of that year, Macron unexpectedly called early legislative elections that left a fairly divided lower house.

Although the left won the elections, Macron appointed conservative Michel Barnier as prime minister in September and centrist François Bayrou in December.

Left seeks to oust Macron

The radical leftist party La France Insoumise (LFI) on Tuesday filed a motion to impeach Macron, which has no prospect of succeeding. Some 64% of French people want him to leave the presidency, according to a recent poll by Odoxa-Backbone.

On the other hand, the Socialists are instead calling for a Left-wing government and propose suspending the pension reform of 2023 and raising taxes on large fortunes, two red lines for the ruling party.